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New PC

Hi!

I guess I'm on the right place here.

I want to built a new Desktop PC which should work good with Linux (Ubuntu or Debian (I am still undecided) and Windows 7(for college reasons))
I used to know everything about Hardware but that was 5 long years ago and much has changed since then. I have a 2 year-old working laptop but the screen is small the cpu-power is low and I really want to build my own PC within the next few months :-)

Why not AMD + nVidia? That's what I'd suggest.
Since you want to play some games with Wine nVidia (unfortunately) is the only viable option. And AMD has got some very nice, cheap and energy-efficient chips. The Athlon X4 605e comes to mind. Quad-Core, 45W TDP and price is good too. Add 4 Gigs of Ram, a mainboard with the new 8xx AMD chipsets (important to keep the power-consumption down) and maybe a GTX 460 (I'm no expert wrt nVidia-cards, but the GTX 460 is getting pretty good reviews. Supposedly it's quiet, powerfull and not very power-hungry).
With a decent ~400W that sums up to a bit over 500€. I guess you could also go with a cheaper gfx-card to keep the price below 500€.

Why not AMD + nVidia? That's what I'd suggest.
Since you want to play some games with Wine nVidia (unfortunately) is the only viable option. And AMD has got some very nice, cheap and energy-efficient chips. The Athlon X4 605e comes to mind. Quad-Core, 45W TDP and price is good too. Add 4 Gigs of Ram, a mainboard with the new 8xx AMD chipsets (important to keep the power-consumption down) and maybe a GTX 460 (I'm no expert wrt nVidia-cards, but the GTX 460 is getting pretty good reviews. Supposedly it's quiet, powerfull and not very power-hungry).
With a decent ~400W that sums up to a bit over 500€. I guess you could also go with a cheaper gfx-card to keep the price below 500€.

And AMD has got some very nice, cheap and energy-efficient chips. The Athlon X4 605e comes to mind. Quad-Core, 45W TDP and price is good too.

However, the i3 and i5 have very low idle consumptions; I've seen people on the web claiming to have their system using as little as 20-25W at idle with integrated graphics. Heck, my i5/Nvidia laptop takes 11W at idle according to Ubuntu.

Price-wise including the difference in power consumption I suspect the AMD system would be ahead, though.

For Wine stuff, Nvidia with the blob is the safer choice. Plus you get VDPAU for HD material.

If you plan to concentrate on native games and regular desktop usage, you should consider ATi graphics. It's more power efficient, has open source drivers (though not out for the latest generation yet), and you can game under Windows anyway.

For Wine stuff, Nvidia with the blob is the safer choice. Plus you get VDPAU for HD material.

If you plan to concentrate on native games and regular desktop usage, you should consider ATi graphics. It's more power efficient, has open source drivers (though not out for the latest generation yet), and you can game under Windows anyway.

which ATI graphics card would you recommend? I'm still in hope that steam will be released on linux next year :-P

which ATI graphics card would you recommend? I'm still in hope that steam will be released on linux next year :-P

If you plan on using the fglrx driver, check the lower-end Radeon HD 5000 series. A friend of mine is planning on building a roughly $300 machine and I recommended the Radeon HD 5450 since he doesn't do major gaming (just WoW and some less-demanding titles) and mainly uses his computer for basic tasks like you mentioned in the original post. You could look for a bit more "beefier" card if it's within your budget. Given the criteria you mentioned, I probably wouldn't go above the 55xx models.
If you plan on using the open-source drivers, do not go any higher than the HD 4000 series. The HD 5000s don't have acceleration of any kind (yet) so if this is an issue of interest, stick with the HD 4000 series or lower. This situation will likely change in the coming months.

But since you said you'd use Ubuntu and/or Debian for your Linux installation, a Radeon HD 5000 budget-range model should work ok.

If you ever need more GPU power, you can always get a "beefier" one down the line if needed.

which ATI graphics card would you recommend? I'm still in hope that steam will be released on linux next year :-P

I would recommend different cards depending on use. If you want just the cheapest option, the older 4350 is great. However, if you are ok with the older generation, a 4650 is also great and has a great deal more power. I have had both of those, and recently got a 5750. The 5750 is absolutely amazing. Low power and temps + excellent gaming performance. Honestly though, if you are looking for pure video playback, nVidia is still a clear choice. I will remind you though, ATI does have better native 3D performance.